This invention relates to portable cooking spits. In particular, this invention relates to a portable cooking spit in which the spit shaft is to be rotatably driven by a motor. Electric motors are frequently used to drive the spit of a barbecue such as a portable barbecue. With the smaller type portable barbecues, the electric motor is mounted on the wall of the barbecue and the spit is supported in notches on the opposite side walls of the barbecue. With larger barbecues, the electric motors are mounted on integral framed structures that also support both ends of the spit. In both these barbecue sizes, the motor supports and spit rod supports are aligned and in a fixed position relative to one another and therefore integrally tied together.
With the larger barbecues designed to support larger pieces of meat weighing up to 100 lbs., the difficulty has been in portability as the larger barbecues require a larger frame structure, thus making it heavier, bulkier and more awkward to handle as well as more expensive to manufacture.
In order to overcome this difficulty, the present cooking apparatus provides a mounting device for mounting the motor support bracket for movement about generally vertical and generally horizontal axes such that the power output shaft of the motor can be aligned with the spit rod regardless of the position of the spit rod supports. The frame structure tying together the spit rod supports and the motor are therefore n longer required. Removing this frame structure makes the barbecue less bulky, its operation more versatile and its manufacturing less expensive. With large barbecues, difficulty has also been experienced in attempting to adjust the height of the spit rod with respect to the heat source.
This difficulty has been overcome in the present apparatus by providing spit rod support members which are slidably mounted on support stantions and which are supported by height setting chains which are releaseably mounted in slots formed in the upper end of the stantions.